MALONEY reckons Coyle would be perfect to replace Neil Lennon at Celtic Park - but he thought the same about former boss Tony Mowbray who failed to inspire the Parkhead side.

SHAUN MALONEY reckons it is out of order to label his old boss Owen Coyle as damaged goods.

The Scotland star took time out from preparations for tomorrow’s clash against Nigeria to give an insight into his former manager.

The axed Wigan boss is now in the frame for the vacant Celtic job.

Coyle was the subject of a market move in the betting shops last night as the race to replace Neil Lennon at Parkhead hots up.

Celtic fans, however, are lukewarm about the prospect.

Coyle was a massive hit south of the border at Burnley but has suffered two subsequent disappointments and been dismissed by Bolton and Wigan.

That record has lessened his appeal but Maloney said: “I think damaged goods is a harsh phrase to use.

“I’ve been involved in situations with a change of manager at club level a few times and I wasn’t actually there the last few weeks before Owen lost his job at Wigan. It’s not really a nice place to be, though, when people are talking about it.

“The easiest thing to do is change the manager because it’s not easy to change the whole squad.

“I didn’t play that much for him. I only played five games and needed surgery and then spent a long time in the States but it’s not nice for him and his staff to lose their jobs and that was unfortunate.

“I couldn’t tell you the ins and outs but I think he was close to getting the Celtic job when he was at Burnley and that’s probably the reason why he’s mentioned again with the manager changing.”

Maloney, however, stopped short of endorsing Coyle for the Celtic position due to the fact the forward’s past experiences have convinced him he’s a hopeless tipster.

Asked if Coyle could be the man, he smiled: “It’s hard for me to answer that. I worked with a really good man and someone I thought would be a really good manager and that was Tony Mowbray.

“That didn’t work out pretty quickly. I didn’t play too many times for him but when I did play I liked him as a person and his style of football.

“So I’m not sure if I could say who would be good for it or not.

“It’s a really intense job. It’s a difficult time for Scottish football with the challenges Celtic have winning the league and then the necessity of getting to the Champions League. I’d still imagine it’s a pretty demanding place to work.

“A list comes up on the TV of who is odds on but the favourite changes on a daily basis.

“It must be exciting for the squad to have a new manager and someone new to work with once the previous boss has decided it’s time to go.

“You’ve worked with the manager for four years and now it’s someone new, so it’s exciting for the team.”

Maloney also knows from experience that working in the environment of Wigan is very different to operating in the suffocating world of Glasgow.

He added: “Wigan is a town of 50,000 people and players and management don’t really have too many press requirements.

“The Celtic job is at the other end of that scale. You’re dealing with hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of fans worldwide and there’s a new level of expectancy of winning trophies.

“Wigan are now faced with the expectancy of being in the top six of the Championship and we don’t feel the intensity of the town the way it is in Glasgow. It’s the polar opposite.”

But Celtic is not Maloney’s focus at the moment. Having been out of the international set-up since scoring the winner in Macedonia last autumn, the attacker is desperate for an outing against Nigeria at Craven Cottage.

Maloney said: “It’s been quite a while so I’m pretty enthusiastic about being back in the squad.

“I got injured in October and only played about five games when I came back for Wigan at the end of the season, so I’ve not really got too much fatigue going on the at the minute and I’m just happy to be here.

“The team have been brilliant recently, unbeaten in the last five games. There has been a pretty big turnaround in terms of results.

“When I was in the squad last time you could sense a change in the belief of the players and that has carried on over the season.

“It’s certainly a tougher team to get into than when I was involved last time.

“The manager works quite hard on the shape of the team. A lot of the training is about tactical shape.

“The players who go out there all know their jobs. We have become a much harder team to beat.

“I think the game at home to Wales was a watershed for us. It was a pretty terrible night but since then we’ve become much harder to beat. It was the kind of platform we needed to start from.

“Every manager wants a certain structure within his team and there isn’t a player in our squad who is so good that he doesn’t need to work or track back within a structure.

“We don’t have anyone good enough to be a luxury player. Under this manager you wouldn’t get to play for him like that anyway.

“It was obvious from early on under him that you have to work hard and understand your role.

“We are taught all week exactly what he wants from us and then it’s up to us to try and do it to win matches.”